Category: Dessert

(30 minutes + 1 hr baking time)

1 cup peeled, cored, and diced tart apples (Granny Smith recommended)

1. Preheat oven to 350F; spray loaf pan with baking spray (mix of oil and flour).

2. In a small bowl, mix the jaggery / brown sugar and spices until combined.

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs and granulated sugar on medium until pale and creamy, about two minutes.

4. With mixer on low, gradually add melted butter, milk, and vanilla, blending until combined.

5. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix until combined. Fold in apples by hand.

6. Spoon about 1/2 the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle about 2/3 of the spiced sugar mixture on top. Spoon remaining batter over the top, followed by the remaining spiced sugar mixture. Use a butter knife to swirl the layers.

7. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn out onto rack, and let cool before slicing. It should keep for about four days on the countertop under a cover, but ours never lasts that long…

I swear, I feel a little bit like a Nordicware whore sometimes, because I shill for their pans so often. But how cute is this? Spiced apple cake, in an apple basket.

Drag a butter knife through the cinnamon sugar and batter before baking to swirl.

More apple batter, then more spiced sugar. Luscious.

The apple quick bread is very popular with the kids. And me. Cooked apples = one of the best things ever.

I asked Kevin to cut an apple for the apple bread, and he cut enough for four batches (!) of apple bread. Good thing we like apple bread.

(It’s not all for us, some of it for the Patreon treat boxes, it was fine, it all got eaten / shipped out. No food wasted in this house! Just funny.)

Still, even if I’d do it a little differently next time, I’m pretty happy with the result. I mean, it’s not a very polished presentation, but it’s sort of a fun, autumn leaf scattering kind of color effect.

I tried mixing the pistachio, carrot, and candied orange separately into the three different colors of batter, and in retrospect, that wasn’t ideal. It meant that some parts of the cake ended up more moist, some more crunchy. I think this would be really good if you just mixed all those into the batter first, then, if you want to color it like this, divide and color.